Bolian Blues

Posted on Fri Jan 20th, 2012 @ 6:00pm by Lieutenant Commander Zim Drex & Lieutenant Elena Valdez

Mission: The Fate of the Swiftsure
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: 6546X.X MD09 1535hrs

Drex removed the hatch carefully and peeked out of the crawlspace before climbing into the cooridor. He breathed a sigh of relief.

He trotted down the gangway, looking over his shoulder, bordering on a flagging sense of paranoia as he made his way toward sickbay.

At a four-way intersection, his eyes spotted the red-crested shoulder of a female ensign about to turn the junction and his back suddenly went flat against the bulkhead, as if that would somehow conceal his presence. Though it was just Ensign McDuff taking the XO a revised duty roster. She kept walking, giving Drex a slightly raised eyebrow in passing.

Drex breathed a sigh of relief once more, and kept going.

When he reached sickbay, he nearly knocked over Hennesey, who was on his way out again. Drex was not surprised to see him, since he was quite the hypochondriac.

"Whoa! Slow to impulse, Lieutenant!" He cracked as Drex was on his way past.

"Doctor. I need you to hide me." He said urgently, seeming quite out of breath, and probably a bit bluer than usual. As was common when Bolians were under stress.

Elena blinked in surprise and said nothing for a brief moment, then a smile started to tug at the corner of her mouth. She had been dutifully reviewing the nurse's latest inventory of medical supplies, so the Bolian's unorthodox request was a welcome diversion.

"Are you okay with small spaces?" The doctor asked the question like it was part of a routine physical exam.

Drex blinked. Of course, that was not out of the question. Yet he only managed, "Uhhh..." before the doctor continued.

"Then follow me," responded Elena, pulling the engineer by the elbow through sickbay until they were in the ship's morgue. She pulled open an empty receptacle and then raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"Feel free to hang out in here as long as you feel necessary. If someone happens to come calling, what would you like me to tell them?"

"Tell who? Er...I mean. You should tell her you haven't seen me." Fortunately, internal sensors were still partially offline. He started climbing into the morgue receptacle, as Elena was about to close him in, he sat back up. "Haven't seen me in days." He laid back down again

"Comfy? If you plan on hiding for a while I recommend taking a nap. I find it rather peaceful back in here, myself."

"Who could sleep at a time like this?" He said, but then got really quiet and wide eyed when he heard a familiar voice in the next room. "Close me close me close me close me close me close me!" He whispered urgently.

"Drex? Are you in here? Honey?" Mitara Mott's voice came from the next room. She wore a slinky red number over her slender blue figure laced with floral purple designs. Though she was in the sickbay common area, and wasn't yet headed back to the morgue.

Drex's panic was obvious, and Elena shoved the morgue receptacle closed so hastily she would have bashed in the blue engineer's head if he hadn't ducked back inside at the last moment. The doctor then tried to plaster a normal expression on her face before marching out of the morgue and into sickbay to greet the visitor.

Elena took in Mott's flamboyant attire and had to smother a grin. This promised to be the highlight of her week. "Can I help you?"

Miss Mott sized up the female doctor from the corners of her eyes. Her expression kept a touch on the suspicious side while she wandered around the sickbay, glancing behind biobeds. "Perhaps you might. I'm looking for Mr. Drex." She squinted at her, her eyes roving her figure and her lips twisted up tightly.

"Drex? I'm sorry, I haven't seen him today." Elena was doing her best to keep her expression friendly, wide-eyed, and innocent. Other humans probably would have seen right through her, but the doctor hoped the female Bolian wasn't as keen an observer of human facial expressions. "Do you need him for anything in particular? We could try paging engineering."

Drex pressed his ear up against the inside of the morgue chamber and tried to listen through the tritanium sheeting around him, but it didn't seem to be working. The same insulating layers that kept the recently deceased preserved also seemed to be preventing sound from coming in.

"Mmmmmmhm." Mitara said, with the sass in her voice measured in kilograms. "That won't be necessary, honey. I know Drexie wouldn't be trying to avoid me." Her eyes went up and down the doctor again. "He's mine, by the way." She lifted the Bolian equivalent of an eyebrow, and turned toward the exit. On the way, she turned, though, to try and duck her way into the morgue.

Elena somehow managed to dive in front of Mott's bee-line towards the morgue, and somehow that dive managed to look casual and not frantic. After halting the Bolian woman the doctor took a hasty step back so they weren't nose-to-nose.

"I'm sorry, but this is a restricted area. Although there's really not much to see in here, anyway. It's pretty dead." Elena chuckled at her own lame joke. "If you're looking for Drex, I really recommend having engineering give him a call. He's probably squirrled away in a Jeffries tube somewhere."

"Oh, I'm onto him." Mott added in a terse tone. Really, she seemed to be saying 'I'm onto you.' with her eyes. She extended her hand up to rest on the doorway arch. "If you see him, please tell him I very much look forward to our next encounter..." And with that, she turned swiftly to dart her way out through the nearest hissing door, leaving a plume of fragrant perfume in her wake.

Elena's nose twitched at the heavy fragrance and she sneezed violently. Then she started laughing...this was definitely good gossip for the Ridge. Still chuckling, she reentered the morgue and pulled open the door concealing Drex.

"All this to avoid talking to a girl, 'Drexie'?" Elena's tone was serious, but her eyes were full of mirth.

Drex looked frantically around the room as the drawer slid open. Then his eyes fell on Elena's expression. He could sense she was just holding it in, and he made a juvenile face. "Don't look at me like that. I may not be Betazoid, but I know what you're thinking."He slid off of the shelf to get to his feet and gave his uniform jacket a quick straightening. "She's relentless. I have no idea what to do."

The doctor was having a hard time keeping the smile from her face. "Ms. Mott wanted me to give you a message. She can't wait until your next encounter. She seems very determined, so it may not be so easy to elude her next time."

He felt compelled to explain a little more, so he did, heading out into the main sickbay, wiping a speckling of nervous sweat from the back of his neck. "Last week she cornered me in a turbolift and secured the door. Nothing happened." He said, pausing a beat. "Cause I shouted out the override command so fast it took the computer a second to respond."

A laugh bubbled out of Elena despite her resolve to remain the cool, professional doctor. “She’s not a shy one, that’s for sure. But I would think you would welcome the company of another Bolian on board.”

Drex leaned against a biobed and crossed his legs. "She's not a Bolian, she's a monster. A horny blue demon, or a psychotic android." Drex made pointy little antennae hooked away from his forehead. "Or an Andorian in disguise. You probably think I'm just nervous, or shy, but I've never had to deal with someone so aggressive before..." He breathed a sigh. "You can't know what that's like." He muttered, trailing off a bit. Something in his voice almost seemed a little dejected as he stared off into space.

The doctor’s smile faded as she caught Drex’s despondent mood. She rather liked the engineer despite (or perhaps because of) his quirky ways, and it bothered her to see him so distressed. She hopped up on the bio bed facing Drex’s, crossing her legs under her and resting both elbows on her knees.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize the situation bothered you so much. You can hide here anytime you like. I’ll do what I can to keep the harpy away.” The last bit Elena said with a friendly half-smile.

"Sooner or later I'll have to confront her. Maybe I can borrow one of your off-button hyposprays just in case." Drex gave a little laugh to show a brightening of his mood, just as quickly as it darkened.

A quick grin flashed across the doctor's face in response. "Somehow I don't think that's the best way to deal with your little problem. But maybe I can help you figure out something else."

"Have you ever dealt with someone..." He shook his fists as if rattling an old cage. "...So incredibly determined to win your affections it actually drove you up the wall?"

Elena paused before replying, her expression turning remote for a moment as she contemplated the nature of her own complicated relationships, past and present. "While I've not been in quite the same situation as you, I've had my own share of...difficulties...with the opposite gender. If you'd like, we could grab lunch sometime and mull over our respective dilemmas--"

Suddenly Drex's Commbadge chimed in. "Ensign Amato to Lieutenant Drex."

Drex sighed and tapped his badge. "Go ahead."

"You wanted me to let you know when we got the phase inducers initialized."

"Thanks Ensign, I'll be right there." He looked at Elena. "Duty calls." Scooting off the table he turned for the door. "Wish me luck." He said with a smile.

"I'll do better than that," responded Valdez, "I'll wish you an easy solution to your problem with Miss Mott!"

He looked both ways before turning down the corridor, the doors hissing shut behind him.